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Don’t Feed the Trolls
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A Better Kind of TrollA phenomenon that seems to be profilerating as rapidly as spam is that of online “trolls”, namely, people who go onto bulletin boards and generally make an unpleasant mess of things.
There are a variety of species - some have a particular bugbear about one subject, reminding me of the old saying, “A fanatic is someone who won’t change the subject and won’t change his mind”. Others fall into the “oblivious to the point of insanity” category - this type is unwilling to acknowledge the misery they are creating and simply refuse to let go. Others are those with the “running grievance” - namely, people who carry a personal grudge from board to board about some usually imagined offense.
The internet is a wonderful thing, no doubt, but the anonymity it provides has a disinhibiting effect: those who kept quiet in real life, suddenly found they could speak without fear of consequences. Many times, this has proven to be a good thing. The trolls prove that there are a lot of people who simply should have remained silent.
It’s very easy to fall into the traps that trolls set; usually they say something so outrageous or rude that it goes against the grain not to respond. However, as with spam, trolls should not be encouraged by providing any form of interaction whatsoever. Here are some things to remember which has helped me in the past:
1. No matter what you do, the troll will remain a troll - if someone posts something feverishly unintelligent, it’s unlikely that anything you say will make them smarter.
2. The troll derives pleasure from argument. Remember, trolls are likely people whose lack of interaction in real life is so desperate that being a troll is the only way they can get noticed. By giving them attention, you feed their hunger to be noticed.
3. The troll’s opinion is unimportant. This is often the most difficult point to remember. If you walk away from an argument with a troll, it’s likely they’ll run around in circles yapping like an incontinent chihuahua on amphetamines that they’ve “won” - it’s a tactic to make you get up and argue with them again. Just remember, the troll is likely some 40 year old who is working at Kinko’s making photocopies and the closest thing to a girlfriend he’s had is the copy of Hustler magazine he has stored under his mattress.
4. If you succumb to anger, the troll wins. It is amazing how emotionally satisfying it is to verbally belt a troll. I once said to a Microsoft-loving troll that he was a “scum puking moron” who should be anally violated by a Hell’s Angel called Otto…for starters. I enjoyed that fit of rage, but in the end the troll was oblivious to what I had said. For all the satisfaction I had gained, it hadn’t hurt him a jot.
So what is to be done? The unenviable task of monitoring trolls falls upon the many board administrators out there. Wise ones provide filters so that particular posters can be ignored. Sites that become infested with trolls should simply be abandoned; it’s far better to walk away, start afresh and let the trolls get locked into a civil war over who is the biggest troll of them all.
The worst thing one can do is to engage trolls, either by trying to fire back at them, or by trying to appeal to their better nature (in my experience, they have none). In short, don’t feed the trolls. Hopefully, if people grow ever more savvy about such things, the trolls will end up feeding solely on each other. |
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发表于 2007-5-31 13:33
